NFL fortunes change faster than the Cold, Hard Football Facts crew rushing the bar at last call.
Six weeks ago, Marty Schottenheimer was
a Coach of the Year candidate who led the 14-2 Chargers into the playoffs on the strength of a 10-game win streak.
Today, it's Bye-Bye, Schotzy – and it's hard to put on a happy face for San Diego fans.
Every big- and semi-big-name assistant on Schottenheimer's staff had booked out of town for another gig in recent weeks, headlined by the curious decision in Dallas to hire
the cursed Wade Phillips, who was San Diego's defensive coordinator from 2004-06.
And then, last night, the San Diego organization dropped the bottom out of the gridiron gallows and said good riddance to embattled head coach Marty Schottenheimer. Looks like that 5-13 postseason record finally caught up with him.
It's a remarkable turn of events for Chargers fans, too. San Diego was 14-2 this season and fielded a young, talent-laden team, led by perhaps the best player we've seen in years in
LaDainian Tomlinson.
Yet here's San Diego nine days after the Super Bowl, gearing up for a rebuilding season under a new staff ... and getting off to a late start.
The Good Ship Schottenheimer was sunk by that now-legendary 5-13 postseason record and by a piss-poor relationship with San Diego general manager A.J. Smith.
Schottenheimer's playoff career was underachieving at best. But he really outdid himself in 2006. Twenty-one teams in NFL history have won at least 14 games in a season, including the 2006 Chargers.
- 14 of those 21 made the Super Bowl
- 10 of those 21 won the Super Bowl
- 3 of those 21 failed to win a single playoff game
Guess which group the 2006 Chargers fall into? They joined the 1986 Bears and the 2005 Colts as the only teams with 14 or more wins that failed to chalk up a single victory in the postseason.
It didn't spell doom for Mike Ditka or Tony Dungy. But those guys weren't openly despised by their GM. Plus, Ditka had won a Super Bowl the year before his disastrous 1986 postseason. Dungy, of course, made up for past transgressions this year when he took a team with more holes than the S.S. Minnow to a Super Bowl championship.
But it looks like Schotzy's career has already galloped past the Last Chance Saloon.
It's long been rumored that Smith had it out for Schottenheimer. The coach said last night in an interview on ESPN that Smith refused to talk to him throughout the year.
We're not shrinks. But we're guessing that's never a good sign.
Team president Dean Spanos called the relationship "dysfunctional."
Which leads us to consider the most shocking aspect of the firing: Why did the Chargers wait so long to drop the big one? A lot of top coaching candidates have already been swept up by other teams. In fact, six teams have snapped up new coaches during the period in which San Diego pondered the decision to fire Schottenheimer: Miami, Dallas, Pittsburgh, Oakland, Arizona and Atlanta are all sporting shiny, new names at the top of the masthead.
The remaining pickin's are certainly slim, especially when a retread like Phillips lands a plum NFL gig with the Cowboys.
At the very least, it certainly has been an eventful year for Schotzy.
Six weeks ago, he was on top of the world.
Today, he's at the bottom of the NFL heap of has-beens ... and nobody but San Diego is looking for a coach right now.
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Here's a look back at Schottenheimer's recent career, culled from the chilly depths of the Cold, Hard Football Facts archives.
